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Monday, June 27, 2011

Hearing Voices - Vernacular

A few years ago, I edited a manuscript that had characters from all over the world – different worlds, in fact. Each spoke in his own particular slang and it didn’t take long for my eyes to cross. The plot held a grandmother from the Deep South, teenagers, foreigners, biblical characters, fantasy characters, and even talking animals. None had distinct, strong voices, even though the author had tried to convey speech patterns in the dialogue. Perhaps from trying too hard, the writing was terribly difficult to read, even for an adult. A youngster wouldn’t have gotten through ten pages without giving up.

What went wrong in this scenario? Most importantly, the writer had not created a strong and simple vocabulary for each character. Most of the time, less is more when it comes to writing vernacular.

For example, if one character uses the regional “y’all” for “you all”, stick to that. Don’t throw in y’ar and ye and youse. It’s especially important if your biblical characters are using “ye” and your city slicker says “youse” a lot. Give each character a specific word that only they use. You can keep your characters very distinct by assigning key slang, regional phrases, and even grammatical errors to their individual vocabularies.

Also be sure you’re using slang that is appropriate for age groups of the time. Urban Dictionary is a great way to check modern expressions, especially to make sure you’re not saying something age inappropriate. Create this speech dictionary before your characters open their mouths and you’ll have clearer writing and fewer changes during revision.

In a future post, I’ll introduce an author who has character voice down to a fine art. Exquisitely spare, Donis Casey’s main character, Alafair Tucker leaves no doubt you’ve just met a strong, kind, curious, intelligent farm woman from Oklahoma. The Alafair Tucker mystery series, set in the early 1900s, creates a distinct and strong sense of place and is firmly rooted in its regional history. Stay tuned for a review of the latest novel, Crying Blood, and an interview with Donis about developing strong voices that flow easily into the modern day.

About "youse" ... if I read that, I would pronounce it (in my head) as if it rhymed with "mouse." I would probably have spelled it as "yous." But that doesn't look right either. Guess I'd have to ask someone living up north.

I LOVE your tip about keeping it simple because, though it makes perfect sense, it's almost counterintuitive: writers may feel as if they are skillfully capturing the vernacular if they include a large vocabulary. But you're right. It can be confusing to do so, especially with a lot of characters.

Great post! I think it's easy for a writer deeply entrenched in the minds of her character's to forget that readers don't have that inside knowledge. They're not going to stick with flat voices and inconsistency in dialog. There are too many other great books out there to read.

It's definitely a sign of our times to want visual reading ease. It's hubbo's birthday today, and he asked for - and got - Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. I told him to feel free and read aloud to me, because I cannot handle Twain's dialogue, at least not eye-to-page. Mercy!

There are lots of ways of defining voice, some more subtle than others. One character could be given to florid sentences, another the reverse: clipped sentences. One could shy away from contractions. Another could like swearing A character could be given to deference. Another, imperative commands. And so on and so on.

I also find it useful to voice a character in ways I *don't* speak. That is, change the wording away from how I myself would put it. This creates a more subtle distinction in voice.